Mr. Franck Viault (Head of Cooperation), Ms. Marja Daffern (Deputy Head of Finance, Contracts and Audit) and Mr. Giovanni Serritella (Programme Manager for Environment, Climate change and FLEGT-VPA) of the EU Delegation to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and ASEAN visited the base camp of the Elephant Patrol Unit (EPU), which is managed and operated by LIF, at Aras Napal on Thursday, 16 April 2015. More

Tujuh badak Sumatra tertangkap kamera di Leuser

Seven of the world's rarest rhinoceroses have been found in a national park in Indonesia. This is the first time the creatures have been seen in 26 years. Deforestation is still pushing the Sumatran toward extinction.

Hidden cameras buried deep in an Indonesian national park have snapped images of seven critically endangered Sumatran rhinos. The rhinos haven't been seen in more than a quarter of a century and conservationists had feared the Sumatran was extinct. But, six females and one male rhino are now known to live in the Mount Leuser National Park, which is on the northern tip of Sumatra. More

emu

The Leuser Management Unit (LMU), while implementing the Leuser Development Programme (funded jointly by the EU and GoI), officially launched the Elephant Patrol Unit (EPU) in Aras Napal on 9 May 2000 and this was the first of its kind in Indonesia. More

cru

The Conservation Response Unit (CRU) will mitigate human-elephant conflicts. This Unit has four trained elephants under the supervision of a mahout provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA). The project will support the initial cost for the infrastructure development of the CRU and also support its operational costs until 2016. The elephants will be supported and the local community will participate in monitoring wildlife conflicts and illegal forestry activities. More

LIF PARTICIPATES IN DISCUSSION ON TIGERS

Dr. Jamal Gawi, MES, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Leuser International Foundation, participated in a discussion on Tigers (Wildlife Protection Series) at @america Pacific Place in Jakarta on Wednesday, 1 October 2014. More

Population number of big mammal in Sumatera such as tiger, elephant and rhino decreased in the last five years rapidly. It was derived mainly by combination factors of highly poaching and deforastation rate and weakly law enforcement. This condition delivers sumateran tiger conservation effort through preventing demography population as priorirty. Another consideration is conserving genetic population. Relocation of five sumatran tigers from Aceh to Bukit Barsan Selatan is the only one example of genetic exchange of sumateran tiger. Workshop of PVA (Population Viability Assessment) is a bridge and effort to collaborate all knowledge from different stakeholders in assesing viability of sumateran tiger population.

epu

Monday, 04 April 2016 07:24 | | |

The Leuser Management Unit (LMU), while implementing the Leuser Development Programme (funded jointly by the EU and GoI), officially launched the Elephant Patrol Unit (EPU) in Aras Napal on 9 May 2000 and this was the first of its kind in Indonesia. Located adjacent to GLNP, this area is the home range of the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae). Because of the abundant supply of food, this is also the habitat area of the Sambar deer (Cervus unicolor), the Malayan Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus), the banded pig (Sus vittatus), the Barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak), the Crab Eating or Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) and the civet in addition to a variety of reptiles and birds.

It is the aim of the EPU to protect and safeguard the biodiversity of the Leuser Ecosystem (in Aras Napal and the surrounding area) throughout the year by reducing human-wildlife conflicts and conducting patrols to prevent illegal activities such as encroachment, Illegal logging and poaching. The base camp of the EPU in area 242 Aras Napal is within the monitoring area of the North Sumatra BBKSDA.

One of the elephants of the Elephant Patrol Unit by the name of Tanti gave birth to a male baby elephant, named Aras, on 29 June 2008. This young male elephant is now undergoing a training process.

At the moment, there are three full grown elephants and a baby elephant at the EPU. They are all tame. The adult elephants were brought to Aras Napal in 1999 from the Way Kambas Elephant Training Centre in Lampung. Their mahouts are also from Lampung and they are assisted by local assistants. This unit conducts routine patrol to safeguard the Mount Leuser National Park area, especially to check the extent of the bias of environmental condition to village community mapping and regulation. Visitors often ride on the back of these elephants into the forest. Another interesting activity is to watch the elephants bathe in the river every morning and afternoon. The Aras Napal area is dominated by young secondary forests. Not far from the camp there is a village occupied by people of different ethnic groups, namely Malay, Java and Batak. The local community fully support the efforts made by LIF to conserve the Leuser forest area.

The EPU patrol team consists of :

- BBKSDA field staff;- Polhut BTNGL;- 6 members of the EPU;- 3 trained elephants (Aini, Tanti, and Dion) and a young elephant (Aras)

LMU built the necessary supporting facilities and infrastructure for the management of these elephants from 1999 to 2004 with funding support from the European Union. This was later continued by Leuser International Foundation (LIF) with funds from the Aceh Forest and Environment Project (AFEP) supported by Multi Donor Fund (World Bank) from 2005 to 2010. since 2011 the EPU has been funded by ExxonMobil Oil International.

cru

Monday, 04 April 2016 07:01 | | |

The Conservation Response Unit (CRU) will mitigate human-elephant conflicts. This Unit has four trained elephants under the supervision of a mahout provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA).

The project will support the initial cost for the infrastructure development of the CRU and also support its operational costs until 2016. The elephants will be supported and the local community will participate in monitoring wildlife conflicts and illegal forestry activities.

OPINION: Climate change affects Asean biodiversity

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN) - Climate change will add another layer of stress to the many stressors that already endanger biodiversity in the Asean region, one of the most diverse ecosystems comprising 20 per cent of the world’s terrestrial and marine biodiversity.

Western scientific explanations are not sufficient to describe the implications of climate change for Asean biodiversity, as there are wide gaps in geo-ecological and socio-economic contexts between Asean and Western countries.

The issue is timely now that the Asean Conference on Biodiversity is underway in Bangkok on February 15-19, 2016.

Abstract The Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis formerly ranged across Southeast Asia. Hunting and habitat loss have made it one of the rarest large mammals and the species faces extinction despite decades of conservation efforts. The number of individuals remaining is unknown as a consequence of inadequate methods and lack of funds for the intensive field work required to estimate the population size of this rare and solitary species.